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Tuesday, May 31, 2016

TOS Review - Essential Skills Advantage Complete Home Learning Suite

When homeschooling a child whose birthday is late fall/borderline between the grades, I'm always looking for all-in-one programs that reassure me that she is getting a well-rounded, full education and not missing something basic from the previous/lower grade as she rises to the challenges of the higher/next grade. So, when I was offered the opportunity to review the Complete Home Learning Suite from Essential Skills Advantage, I was quite excited.

What is the Essential Skills Advantage Complete Home Learning Suite?

Pretty much the name says it well. It is online and presents lessons for K-6 Graders. We used it for the 4th Grade level which includes lessons in:

Reading

Language and Grammar

Math

Science (The science levels went up through 3rd grade, but we still has access to this level.)

Geography

Within each subject are sub-programs and individual lessons. For instance, under Math is a section of Math Operations, and under that section are several activities within each section such as Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division.

The site is set up to automatically generate bar graph reports as the child completes each lesson. These reports provide an overview with the option of clicking on more detailed reports for specific subjects, and you can choose to create a report card which you can add notes to and print out.

The graphics are colorful but not overly simplified or babyish. Nor are they distracting, but rather they accentuate the topic at hand to help make learning interesting.

How Did We Use It?

I received an online subscription for one year for one student. The pricing is set up to include your choice of one or up to 10 students. I used it with one child, my 9-year-old 4th grader.

Her grade is slightly complicated to explain. We often refer to her as our Fraction Half Grader, and this year we went full out with the upper grade choice instead. Let me explain: In our public school district, her birthday puts her in 3rd grade, barely. But, when she was Kindergarten level, she was already reading fluently, so we started her as a 1st Grader instead. So, as she progressed through the early grades, she was always technically a Kindergartner, but doing First Grade work, K/1. Then, a technically a first grader doing 2nd grade work, 1/2. Then technically a second grader doing 3rd grade work. Until we put an end to the halves this year and called her a full-fledge 4th Grader. This was a great idea for that time, but since that time, she keeps up well on some subjects but others are points of struggle that make me put her back to the lower Grade level.

Long story short: I was excited to get a full-curriculum course to gauge her overall ability to see if it is up to 4th Grade level work.

I set up my 4th grader and let her go to town, verbally assigning to her the subjects and lessons I wanted her to finish each day. I found it very easy to set up the account for the student, who logs on through the parent account. It's equally as easy to turn it over to the child to complete with very little teacher intensive energy needed.

What Did We Think?

We really liked it. My daughter found the site easy to use and colorful with nice graphics and no lag loading screens. My daughter often finds online audio instruction annoying and distracting, but not so with this learning site. It was the opposite. The instruction was age appropriate with pleasant audio.